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Preacher: Ross Macdonald
Scripture: Exodus 1:15-22
You have some bulletins up here if you'd like a bulletin to take notes, maybe I could have a couple volunteers. Just put your hand up so that you can have some notes and while those are being passed out.
If you're not a note-taker, let me encourage you you ought to be a note-taker a little pedagogical insight your your mind when it's engaged in taking notes will do a better job of Listening and engaging with what you're hearing than if you're only Listening and then your mind begins to wander and you kind of keep circling back.
So the old adage that the strongest memory is weaker than the weakest ink is certainly true. And even if you never look at your notes again You will have gotten more out of the fact that you took notes while you were listening.
So maybe there's a few that I've convinced to take some some notes. It's not exactly heavy this morning but may be good to develop the habits of taking notes. This morning we're continuing in Exodus in chapter 1.
This is now the the second week that we've dipped our toes Into the shoreline of this tremendous book and we're going to weigh deeper and deeper as we make our way forward over the coming months. Last week we kept in mind that Exodus does follow Genesis not only Chronologically by a turning of the page, but it also begins with a callback to Genesis 46.
And so the opening of the narrative of Exodus is meant to be read in Conjunction with the closing of the book of Genesis. Of course all five books the first five books of the Bible have a certain unity given to them by Moses and his writing of them and they're often called the first five books or the Pentateuch.
And so we're reading Genesis and Exodus as a cohesive narrative and all of this is the outflow of Genesis 1 through 3 the creation of man and God's purpose and intention for mankind and Then the fall and all of the consequences of the fall.
But in spite of the fall God's grace and with God's grace God's promise. That he would redeem the curse of the fall as far as that curse would be found. That his good desire and intention for man would be Found in the fullness of time when he sent the promise seed the seed that he promised to the woman Into the world to accomplish what the first Adam had failed to do the last Adam would succeed and so secure God's blessed intention for man.
To be in a relationship of glory and enjoyment Forever without any possibility of sin or fall so that that is taking us into Exodus. We're taking further steps into the unfolding of what we call redemptive history not just History as it would stand in a homeschooling textbook.
Let's say but history from the perspective of God's great acts of redemption and the fullness thereof found in the person and work of our Lord Jesus. Remember what God had promised Abram in that dark sleep that came upon him.
He said to Abram. No, certainly your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs and will serve them and Will afflict to them for 400 years and the nation whom they serve I will judge afterward.
They shall come out with great Possessions that was what he had revealed to Abram when he made the covenant with Abraham. And we're walking now in the beginning of the fulfillment of that promise. We left off the Israelites last week in sore affliction in great bondage in the land of Egypt.
Crying out to the Lord as Pharaoh begins his programmatic crushing of their spirit and this morning in the remainder of Exodus 1 the programmatic crushing of their seed of their children. We began to see last week the the contrast between the mercy of God Blessing and multiplying and making fruitful the Israelites so that they're becoming a mighty nation in the land that does not belong to them contrasted with the cruelty of Pharaoh who keeps adding burdens that they cannot bear and Soon, we'll see the fullness of that being complete folly make bricks without straw do this work.
That's now impossible to do. The point is that I I completely subjugate you to my will and to my yoke. This morning. We're gonna see the beginning of a counteraction against Pharaoh's tyranny and that's all coming in this marvelous phrase.
The fear of God that's the focal point this morning the fear of God something needful for the hour men and women who fear God. So we're going to consider first the fear of God briefly. We'll consider the return on that fear the blessing of God.
All right, so fear of God first. Briefly the blessing of God, which is the return on fear and then moving more toward application the need for God fearers. The need of the day the need of the hour to be God fearing as believers.
So first the fear of God beginning in Exodus 1 verse 15. Then the king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives of whom the name of one was Shifra the name of the other Pua and he said. When you do the duties of a midwife for the Hebrew women and see them on the birthstools if it is a son Then you shall kill him.
But if it is a daughter, then she shall live. Pharaoh has gone from the brutality of slavery now to the brutality of infanticide. He seeks to destroy the male lineage among the Israelites. This is a major step forward in his plan.
But at this stage, it's very subtle. It's not to the very end of the chapter, but now he'll go to the Egyptians and say Cast the Israelite sons into the river. This command is done more subtly he he finds these two Hebrew midwives.
We'll talk about that phrase Hebrew midwives in a moment. And he gives the command every son born among them is to be killed In a secret covert way in a way that it could be seen to be Accidental or stillborn not in a way that was intentional so he's seeking to cover up this murderous intent through the agency of Shifra and Pua and likely those that they had authority over again a note I'll make in a moment the daughters aren't to be spared in Pharaoh's mind.
The daughters don't pose an immediate threat because there's a way of Submerging a people's identity through intermarriage that can take place with daughters Intermarrying Egyptians or other subject races, but it can't take place with Israelite men forming households of their own so it seems to be Pharaoh desiring to have still ranks of slave labor in his kingdom and Realizing the way to do that is to allow the Israelite daughters to intermarry and so be Compromised and yet still be servile.
But as for the men who pose the greatest threat to my power and the greatest form of Israelite identity. They must be killed. That's the policy. We're given the names of two women. Isn't it ironic we're given the names of two women and we're not given the names of Pharaoh.
We're given the names of two midwives Shifra and Pua. Some make the case not just modern scholars, but even John Gill is an example. Give the case for the amount of women that the Lord had blessed with children.
It's unlikely that two midwives Could have handled all of the workload and you can imagine them jogging and sprinting from one Tent or home or dwelling place to the next. So so perhaps these are Representative.
These are the ones that are named and remembered perhaps. They have a position of unique authority in their relationship. Not only as midwives to the Hebrew women, but also in their relationship to the court of Pharaoh.
So John Gill says perhaps they were the most noted in their profession. And so the king began with these. If he could succeed with them He would go on to others or perhaps they were not the only midwives.
They may have been representative of those in a similar position. That's how some of the rabbinic interpreters long ago took it like Rashi as an example. Another debated issue Calvin Gill all these brothers take different views on this is whether or not Shifra and Pua were actually Hebrew midwives or.
Were they midwives over the Hebrews. The translation could go either way. In fact the Greek translation of the Hebrew here what we call the Septuagint Translates it in Greek as they were midwives over the Hebrews rather than Hebrew midwives and the case is made.
How could Pharaoh expect? Hebrew midwives to exterminate Hebrew sons that would have been a hard sell. But if they were Egyptians then it's more likely that he could have coerced them or commanded them to kill The enemy of the people in this case the Israelites.
Well, that's possible. But we're not told if he was coercing them with a reward or if he was in some ways threatening them with punishment. There's more than one way to skin a cat. Don't you ever wonder where that phrase is?
Where does that phrase ever come from? I don't want to know Poor Ralphie as it stands in the narrative. We're not told whether they were Hebrew midwives or midwives over the Hebrews. It seems logical that they could have been Egyptian women and that's why Pharaoh approached them or he simply could have approached them with his Power.
Remember he thinks he's the cream of the crop. He has all of the power and the mightiest kingdom of the ancient world and he would think if I say do this. It's either you do this or I will do this to you.
You exterminate who I say to exterminate or you will be exterminated. Scholars note they have not Egyptian names, but Semitic names. It's possible that they were given Semitic names in this position of honor afterward the Hebrews.
Recognizing the the great mercy that God showed through them. Just like Joseph had a Semitic name you say but was also given Egyptian names up not Pena. As it stands the narrative is not interested in giving us these details it's only interested in portraying their courage and their fear of God in Contrast to the evil and foolish bent of Pharaoh upon destroying Israel.
Now let's focus on on that the significance of Pharaoh's desire to destroy The male lineage among the Israelites as I mentioned briefly last week. This part of Exodus this this entree into Exodus is ultimately depicting satanic Opposition not only to God's people But to God's purpose for the world through his people.
Right. It's not just a direct opposition to the Israelites but what God had promised to take place through the Israelites as a blessing for all of the nations of the world. And so on the one hand we're learning from Shifra and Pua how to be faithful to God in times of persecution and Tribulation, but on the other hand the story is meant to open up the cosmic dimensions of everything We've seen from Genesis 3 15 and forward.
It's not difficult to peer behind the scenes as Arthur Pink says and find Pharaoh simply to be an instrument Which is accomplishing the design of the serpent. Seeking to crush the seed of the woman ultimately Exodus 1 is a reminder that God had put enmity Between the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman the promised seed who is the Lord Jesus Christ in the lineage Through Abraham and through his descendants that ultimately would bring forth that promised seed.
John seems to pick this up in his unique Apocalyptic way from Revelation chapter 12 where he typifies the serpent this this dragon from the beginning in moments like Exodus 1 in moments like the massacre of the innocence when Jesus was about to be born in these very moments.
We see the serpent opening wide his jaws to devour the promised seed and bring God's promises to not The dragon stood before the woman who is the woman?
Eve.
Mother Israel.
Mary.
The church.
Yes to all of the above it's the enmity between the serpent and the woman. The dragon stood before the woman who was ready to give birth to devour her child as soon as it was born. Pharaoh's opening wide his satanic jaws to crush the messianic lineage.
Now it's cosmic as we're saying. It's ultimately about the promised seed. We're unfolding redemptive history. But redemptive history is a way of viewing concrete actual lived and experienced history. And so I Don't want us to miss The cosmic contour of Exodus 1.
This is dealing with principalities and powers eschatological promises the Storyline of the entire scriptures and how that all comes at its very height to reveal the person and work of Jesus. But I also don't want us to miss the lived and experienced reality of this cosmic and satanic opposition Impacting the lives of men and women and children like you and me.
The commentators I think on this end are very helpful and when they consider what Pharaoh was commanding They're incensed. John Gill says the scheme.
Was so.
Barbarous and shocking. Especially to the tender sex especially to these two women. So devoid of humanity one would think it could never have entered the heart of man. Calvin says Pharaoh desires the infants to be killed as they're born and he commands the midwives to be the instance in instruments of this dreadful barbarity.
We read of no such detestable example of inhumanity since the world began this past week. I Read a report from BBC about doctors in Greenland.
Who inserted.
Intrauterine contraceptive devices into Several thousand local women without their knowledge and without their consent. And this was not some random rogue doctor Shirking the responsibilities of the Hippocratic Oath.
He had taken this was a government policy from the Danish government. This is a quote from the report. When Danish authorities noticed a dramatic growth in the native Inuit population a Growth ironically that came with the wonders of modern health care.
The decision was made by the government to artificially limit the ability of Inuit women to have children. This was done without their consent or their knowledge. This is from the report. Convinced that Greenlandic women were constitutionally incapable of taking birth control pills Danish doctors secretly inserted IUD devices without informing them.
A Source told Danish journalists that doctors often would joke About how Inuit women wanting treatment for swollen fingers would come to their clinic only to leave with an IUD. Ultimately About half of all of the Inuit women on the island were sterilized.
Between.
1966 and.
1970 with an investigation now looking up to The same figures through 1991 and some reporting an IUD being implanted without their consent as recent as five years in China, you're familiar with perhaps their policy and They relied also on IUD devices.
I some months ago came across an artwork by a Chinese artist named Wenjing Zhou. And if you saw it, you'd perhaps be a little confused at what it was, but the title of the piece is IUD. And sort of a blank dark wooden board and there's these intricate little pieces of copper wire all different shapes very similar, but each one unique and They're put in sort of this grid like pattern on this board.
Well, the artist Zhou explains the work. There is a traditional piece of art in China where people write the same character over and over a hundred a thousand Ten-thousand times and the more you write it the more your meaning to To reward or give to someone the significance of the character that you keep repeating and so often it's blessing.
So the Chinese character for blessing you write out a hundred a thousand a hundred thousand times and in each little Calligraphic stroke is meant to show your desire for the recipient. What I use was pieces of copper wire.
That were actually not manufactured by me, but by companies medical manufacturers that made IUD devices. These pieces of copper wire were in fact.
IUDs.
The sharp edges would be prongs that were inserted into an otherwise healthy woman. When inserted they would cause a local inflammation and therefore a higher amount of white blood cells which would act to prevent pregnancy.
Between 1980 and 2014 three hundred and twenty four million Devices were planted into Chinese women and Joe the artist who made this piece said in China Fertility was a disease that needed to be cured.
Fruitfulness.
Blessing.
Becoming a curse. The jaws of Satan. Opening wide. To deform and destroy God's good design and good intentions for humanity. To thrive and flourish. To be blessed and enjoy him. To glory and worship as his creatures on the earth in our day.
Has not abortion. Been aided and abetted because we've been silent. Perhaps more silent in ways than we know we could be. But we comfort ourselves to say we're more vocal than a lot of other people that we know.
Now you don't need to have copper wire Implanted without your consent. You can simply go to Walgreens or CVS and take a pill. It may be different as far as the mode. But the design and the ultimate source isn't different at all.
It's from the evil one and it's direct rebellion and opposition against God a hatred for anything that resembles his image. It's the satanic monstrosity That deforms and makes men and women miserable.
It makes doctors killers rather than healers. There's a born-alive act perhaps you read about that or heard about that this week. Where so many politicians on the left Kept simply repeating the lines.
We will always stand for a woman's reproductive, right? We will always stand for choice. When the act was simply describing That if an abortion had been attempted and yet failed and a baby was born alive The doctor must not make any attempt to save that baby's life all of a sudden.
Exodus one isn't that far away from where we are and The question is where are the shifras and the Pua's today? What delivery wards are the shifras and Pua's going to stand not in fear of man? But in fear of God.
There's certainly no shortage of pharaohs today whether in China in Denmark in Greenland or here in the United States of America. There's no shortage of pharaohs acting as pawns of the Satanic hatred for God's intention for man and woman for God's love for his image bearers to walk in the glory of His design intricately knitting them in his womb giving them life and health.
Happiness and and all of the propensity of man in the world to be dominion takers and meaning makers to bring glory to God as his image bearers and seeking to exterminate and crush and Mutilate that purpose of God to mar and deform the image of God in human life without thought without Remorse without hesitation.
There's no shortage of pharaohs. They're in the Congress. They're in the halls of power. They're in the state chambers. They're in the city hall councils. They're your neighbors. If Pharaoh were alive in 2023, he would simply put on his Twitter account The Kingdom of Egypt will always stand with women for reproductive rights.
But the reality behind that.
Subterfuge of rhetoric is.
The dragon opening his jaws. Looking to devour the child. Where are the shifras and the Pua's today? Shifra is a Semitic name as we mentioned that it means beautiful Pua. Very similar splendid one. Perhaps these were honorary names that were given to these two midwives.
They did a beautiful thing. They did a splendid thing. They had been commanded perhaps with their own necks on the line to murder children. But in direct opposition, they ended up saving all of the male children alive.
Pharaoh.
Had a final solution for the Israelites and they didn't say well. Personally, I oppose this. Personally, I have a very different view about this. But I recognize my view is not everyone else's view and it is legal.
And of course if it's legal my hands are somewhat tied so while I would make the argument this is an ethical who am I to assume the ethics of the person that I'm treating or I have responsibility toward and after all there probably is more things that I have to enter into dialogue with about climate Catastrophe and potential food shortages in the Nile.
Maybe in some ways this is a wise measure that Pharaoh is taking. That's not what shifra and Pua said. And they didn't even say something a little closer to home. What can we do? Our livelihood is bound up in our positions.
We don't eat if we don't obey and much less if we disobey we may be killed. Better some Hebrew boy on the birthstool than me. That's not what shifra and Pua said. What did they do? Verse 17. It's the central text of this section of chapter 1.
They feared God. The midwives feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them. But saved the male children alive. What did shifra and Pua do? They feared God and they disobeyed man. What did shifra and Pua do?
They disobeyed an evil policy of Infanticide and instead of killing male children, let the male children live saved them alive. Now shifra and Pua almost surely were afraid of Pharaoh's power. But they were more sure of God's power for them.
The choice was clear Pharaoh and the state of Pharaoh had given a command that was directly against God's command. And therefore they knew there was only one right way to act and there was no gray area Surrounding it.
They simply had to choose. Will we fear God or will we fear fear Pharaoh? Will we obey God or will we obey the state? I don't know that we ever up to this point in reading the Bible. Come across two women of this caliber.
Certainly we've seen godly women in the account of Genesis and women also that failed just as we've seen godly men who were also failures, but Shifra and Pua are held out as the examples. Before we get to Moses the Deliverer.
We have shifra and Pua the Deliverers. These are Philip Rykin puts it. These are the first pro-life.
Heroines.
The first pro-lifers in the Bible. Shifra and Pua. Courageous women clever women. Wisest serpents. And how they respond to Pharaoh as we'll see in a moment. They did a beautiful thing. They did a splendid thing.
They feared God. Pharaoh was the most powerful man in the world. Pharaoh above all rulers in the world had the most resources at his disposal the most luxury. If he couldn't win them by the corruption of that luxury by the promise or the elaboration of some bribe or some offer of a greater position and status then he could certainly make them tremble with the power of Torture and dungeon to see their own body perhaps their own loved ones taken from them.
But shifra and Pua dared to risk their lives perhaps the lives of their relatives or family lines beyond them. Because they feared God they understood that obeying God is always the safest thing to do.
But it never seems to be the safe thing to do. Do you understand that obeying God is always the safest thing to do? Even when it feels like it's the most unsafe thing you could possibly do in The bitterness and corruption of Egypt we find Fear of God.
I love that. I love that because when we read it with Genesis We we notice this great contrast. Remember what Abraham said about Egypt in Genesis 20.
When he was.
Pressed with the the vexing question. Why would you do such a thing? Why would you lie to me? And Abraham said it's because I thought surely there's no fear of God in this place. There's no fear of God in Egypt.
Well, there is now Shifra and Pua are in Egypt and they have a fear of God. Do you remember later on when God was? Commending Abraham because he did not withhold his only son. And what did God through the angelic?
Proclamation say now I know that you fear God now. I know that you fear God. It's not your thought to your sentiment or reaction to some news piece that you've read in Action with your life and livelihood on the line now.
I know that you fear God brothers and sisters. If you haven't been licking your finger and putting it in the wind, we're rushing toward fork roads quite like these. Sooner or later most of us in this congregation will have opportunities to prove whether we fear God or not.
Jacob swore by the fear of his father Isaac. Joseph said in Genesis 42 do this and live for I fear God. There's been this faithful Correspondence of God raising up his promises because people were walking with him in fear of him.
And therefore not of man. More and more because of Shifra and Pua there were little Hebrew boys sprouting into tents and homes. There were Hebrew boys crawling down the sidewalks. Hebrew boys napping in pack in place and sooner or later Pharaoh's going.
What happened to this little policy? We were supposed to have there shouldn't be any Hebrew boys that are above the age of perhaps One something like that. Yeah, there should be a complete Decimation of Hebrew toddlers and so he calls for them.
Can you imagine what it would have been like for these women to be called before Pharaoh? But they're still fearing God. Why have you done this thing? Why have you saved the male children alive? Yeah, Pharaoh's a fool, but he's not that foolish.
How inept are you at your job that not one of them has been killed? Why are you saving them and the midwives said to Pharaoh the Hebrew women are not like Egyptian women. They're lively. They give birth before the midwives come to them.
We get the telephone call at 1 a .m. We get there at 110 and there's the baby nursing. Now there's translation Issues with what what is meant by the phrase they are lively. It's a very very difficult to translate.
In fact, there's some ancient translations going back to for instance Symmachus and the translation from Symmachus is for they are Midwives and the Vulgate in Latin takes that up. They are skilled in midwifery.
The idea is They don't even ask for us. They don't call for us because the Hebrew women are so good at midwifery that they don't even need us. And that's a possible translation. Another thing for lively is it it would be the the idea of they're they're like beasts.
How's that ladies. The Hebrew women are like beasts when they give birth. Well, I can attest to that I've seen my share of the birth experience. But what's meant by that is they're they're animals that don't need any help.
They're able to do it all for themselves. They're that lively that rugged when it comes to giving birth. What whatever was meant and whatever the best translation is. They've doubled down on their fear of God and Pharaoh simply does not respond to them.
The most powerful man in the world cowed by two midwives. The most powerful ruler the world had ever seen up to this point in history. Huffing and puffing in the backcourt because these two midwives were afraid of God but not of him that is power.
These were not Women with neon purple hair saying hear me roar. That's not power. I know that the world likes to pretend that that's power. That's actually just debased corruption and degradation. Godliness has power.
Holiness has power. Reverential fear has power. Were they exaggerating the situation. This is always the issue, right? We've been encouraged over the past several weeks at SLBC and in some other conversations to to be Teaching the Ten Commandments.
Little ones little ears little minds and hearts need to be formed around the law of God.
Why?
Because this is the law that corresponds to what is written on their hearts and their conscience needs to be informed by what's written on their heart rather than them repressing and Pushing down and ignoring the law that's on their heart the law that they should hear.
Externally because in their conscience it accords with what is written internally. So we've been talking a lot about that. So I'm sure there's some astute ten-year-old that will say did Shifra and Pua break the ninth commandment.
That's a great question. They certainly are not presented in the text as anything less than godly women of faith. Now you can be really hard-lined about this and take the approach that John Calvin took or Augustine took who don't deny these women were praised as many other figures that seem to be.
Saying less than the whole truth and nothing but the truth are often praised within the narrative. There's of course several examples we won't take the time to look at them, but you can look at Joshua 2 as an example of deception or delusion or lying.
Joshua 8 Judges chapter 4 1st Samuel 16. You remember the Prophet says I'm here to sacrifice. Certainly wouldn't be anointing a new king. Not the whole truth. And if it's not the whole truth, is it the truth?
So this is viewed as a problem. It's been a historical problem for Interpreters. Augustine who wrote one of the great treatises day mendaki on lying. He said basically this is wrong. It's wrong. It's wrong.
There's no way no situation in which lying can be seen to be right.
This is a.
Breaking of the ninth commandment and then he can go on to praise their courage and their virtue and show that God was pleased to show them mercy and Forgive this wrong for the sake of the good that led to it.
So that's the most that you'll get from Augustine Calvin or perhaps even that's where your sentiment lies on the other hand as Robert Rayburn would argue. A Christian ethicist has sometimes said there is what we could call the dutiful lie an untruth.
That's that's politician speak, isn't it an untruth? That is nevertheless right to tell. Because it is necessary to save life. Of course the the classic conundrum that systematic theologians and Christian ethicists deal with.
You could find this in Wayne Grudem and John frame as if you were a Dutch farmer in the 1940s and the Gestapo showed up on your door and The leather boots were there and men with Luger's and Mauser's were barging into your room.
And they said are you hiding any Jews in your home or in your barn?
What do you say?
If you were to bring your neighbors out from the attic or the crawlspace, you know that they'll be lined up against your barn and shot. But you're also a good Dutch Calvinist and you know, I Don't want to break the Ninth Commandment.
Shouldn't I be the one that's fearing God like Shifra and Pua? And so Christian ethicists come up with this idea of what's called sometimes by them the dutiful lie a bald-faced.
Untruth.
That's Rayburn says. But one that's right and necessary. That still may not take away the issue that It is indeed a breaking of the Ninth Commandment. But Christian ethicists argue it depends how we understand it.
For example, the Sixth Commandment. They would say a soldier kills as an activist duty and function as a soldier as he broke in the Sixth Commandment. We tend not to view Enforcement of laws or military actions as murders, right?
Our justice system certainly doesn't view it that way. So there's a sense in which not all killing is murder. Is there a sense which then that not all not all deception is a lie at least a Ninth Commandment breaking lie and then We're just assuming from the way the text is coming to us that they lied to Pharaoh when he pressed them on the matter a Puritan like Matthew Poole said maybe they didn't even lie at all.
They certainly said a truth concerning some of the Hebrew women. Maybe that wasn't the case with all of the Hebrew women. So though it wasn't the whole truth They certainly weren't speaking a lie and they were never obliged to give the whole truth.
Anyway, so that's Matthew Poole trying to say we're good. So those are your options. I'm not choosing a hill to die on this morning. Those are your options. You can take the pool approach the Calvin approach or the Rayburn approach.
Is it a dutiful lie? Is it something that God has to forgive because it was a sin? But he highlights his mercy to them because they did a great thing or were they not lying at all? They were just presenting one aspect of something.
That was true. I Will agree and I think all shot all sides should agree should agree with this when the midwives were called before Pharaoh. And Pharaoh was thinking I can crack the whip and make sure that if they'd been half-hearted now.
They won't doubt and they won't ignore my command. For them to simply double down and say what can we do our hands are tied we're trying to obey you Pharaoh the Hebrew women are just beastly in the way that they bear children and Lightfoot JB Lightfoot says in this sense.
The midwives are not lying. They're giving the most glorious confession of their faith in God, and I love that. They're giving their most glorious confession of their faith in God. Shifra and Pua had been sent out like sheep in the midst of wolves.
Christians are often sent out as sheep in the midst of wolves. And that's why Jesus says be as innocent as doves but be as wise as serpents and Here I think we have a good illustration of what Jesus meant by being perhaps as innocent as a dove and as wise as a serpent.
So.
Let's talk briefly about the blessing that attends Shifra and Pua the blessing that attends fearing God. Remember this great verse. The midwives feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them.
And then we read verse 20. Therefore God dealt with the midwives well and the people multiplied and grew very mighty and.
So it was.
Because the midwives feared God. That he provided households for them. So what we have repeated in the narrative is the midwives fear of God. That's what that's meant to stand out to us. That's the highlighted portion.
The midwives feared God and because they feared God he provides Households for them and the question is what's the them? Is it households for Shifra and Pua? Perhaps they were in midwives because they didn't have husbands and families of their own.
Because they had preserved other families by not killing the male offspring God had blessed them with families and households of their own. That's a possibility. It could be that the them is simply referring back to the growth of Israel in its might so it would read something like this.
The people grew and multiplied and became very mighty and so it was. Because the midwives feared God he provided households for Israel. In other words more and more homes the next generation and the generation was being formed all Because of the fear of God in these two women.
Perhaps it's a little bit of both. I think the text is wanting to hold out. They had a courage that was led by the fear of God and God took care of them. Rather than being cast into a dungeon to rot away in oblivion God actually blessed them and gave them families in a lineage of their own.
I certainly think that's open to the text. But then also what are they doing by not killing the male offspring? They're making households for Israel. God's giving households for Israel through the fear of God in these two women.
Israel's becoming more and more mighty even as Pharaoh is more bent than ever on destroying them. So we're meant to see that God rewards faithfulness. Major theme it's part of the law of reaping and sowing.
Sometimes the rewards are late. Sometimes the rewards come in strange packaging. Sometimes the rewards may not be what we pray for or what we would even initially want. But God rewards faithfulness we also see with faithfulness.
Comes the blessing of God and with the blessing of God comes opposition. The same spirit in the world who wants to open his jaws and devour the the children is enraged when he sees the blessing of God attend Shifra and Pua and the Israelites and.
So blessing is not without opposition. The more the people are blessed the more they're opposed. And that leads us to the last verse of the chapter. Pharaoh commanded all of his people fine. If I can't get Shifra and Pua to do it I'll get my people to do it and the command goes out.
Every son who is born you shall cast into the river every daughter. You shall save alive the slave population now being raided at random by the Egyptian populace that had this hatred this racist hatred for the Israelites and Their children being cast into the river to drown.
With blessing comes opposition. Pharaoh is now seeking to destroy is your light strength, whatever it takes. If he couldn't do it secretly in the dark through this arrangement with the midwives and he'll do it openly as in the day.
Don't be surprised when the things that our opposition can't do in the dark. They just do openly in the day. We always want to think there'll be some restraint. Certainly, there'll be jaws dropping in the floor and that will repel them from being as vicious and as cruel as they would be.
Otherwise Read Exodus 1 carefully. That's not necessarily the case. And of course all of this is setting up our entrance into chapter 2 because Moses is one of these little Hebrew boys Whose life is on the line and his mother has to take action to save him.
So we have the backdrop to the birth of Moses and this providential unfolding of what God will do. For Israel through him as the great deliverer in mediator. We're reminded again, and I love what Calvin says on this point.
The whole design of Pharaoh was meant to frustrate Essentially the Church of God right Israel was that the Church of God the people of God. Pharaoh's whole design as Calvin says with that was that Israelite men would die without any hope.
But the name and the race of Abraham would be cut off that all of God's promises would fail. In these days and these days are the 1500s. Where we have to bear similar insults and our urge to despair as if the church would soon be utterly destroyed.
Let us learn to hold up this example like a strong shield because it is no new case. When immediate destruction seems to await us the divine aid comes suddenly and unexpectedly. You can picture Calvin preaching that to French exiles.
Huddled there in Geneva thinking all our Huguenot cousins and uncles are being massacred back home. And the whole church itself was about to be destroyed. And Calvin saying take hearts. God moves mightily to deliver his people.
Jesus says it and perhaps even better words Matthew 10 27. And following whatever I tell you in the dark. Speak in the light and what you hear in the ear. Preach on the housetops and do not fear those who kill the body.
But cannot kill the soul. But fear him. Who's able to destroy both body and soul in hell. Don't have a fear of man? Have a fear of God. Have a fear not of what Pharaoh could do to you bodily or financially.
But have a fear of God if God can destroy both body and soul something no ruler. No tyrant no dictator could ever do if he can destroy both body and soul. Can he not also preserve both body and soul? So fear God we shouldn't stop short in what Jesus says in Matthew 10.
Right fear him who's able to destroy body and soul in hell. And every fundamentalist preacher wants to stop there. Amen. Yeah. What does Jesus go on to say? All right, he's able to destroy body and soul in hell.
So you tyrants better back off my sheep. You might afflict my people outwardly. My father will get all of you forever. No hiding place from him. No end to what he will do to avenge his beloved. I think he's primarily speaking to the persecutors in that passage.
Fear God because of what he's able to do. And then what does Jesus say to the sheep? That are sore pressed and in bondage and afraid. What does he say are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin? Not one of them can fall to the ground without my father's notice.
The very hairs of your head are numbered. Do not fear therefore. You are worth much more than these Shifra and Pua a part of God showing his concern for the sparrows. That's why like The Israelites needed a Shifra needed a Pua they needed two women that above all Israel at this point in time.
Were God-fearing women. They were the deliverers before Moses was a deliverer. They were the deliverers that allowed Moses to be a deliverer. How many generations of Israelites were marching through the Red Sea?
Centuries later because of what Shifra and Pua had done the power of fearing God. So brothers and sisters We need God fearers today. We need men and women that fear God not status quo. Not Christians who dutifully go to church and then jump through the hoops of the War Creek.
But have the right insignia and status on Sunday, so we don't need more of that. We've got enough of that. We actually need men and women that fear God. The psalmist gives a description of this blessing that attends those who fear God.
Blessed is everyone who fears the Lord. Not everyone fears the Lord. Not everyone is blessed. But blessed is everyone who fears the Lord. So the fear of God is first and foremost a way of living under the blessing of God and the Bible gives so Many descriptions of what this means of of what the fear of God entails.
The first thing the most basic thing we take away is for Christians for believers we do not view the fear of God as a sort of base dread of.
Repulsion a.
Horrified terror that causes us to flee from the presence of God in what way would that be a blessing? Blessed is everyone who fears the Lord. They're so blessed to be running in panic away from God's presence.
No, the fear of God is not Adam running darting through the limbs and trying to cover himself. That's not the fear of God. That's fearing God, but that's not what is meant by the phrase the fear of God and often these things are held together sometimes as in Matthew 10 a fear that would be rather heart-melting is held together with the Command don't fear.
You saw that in Matthew 10, right? Fear him who's able to destroy both body and soul and then do not fear. You're of much more value than sparrows Exodus 20. We'll see it when we get there. Moses says to the people do not fear.
God.
Has come to test you so that his fear would be before you right? Don't fear. God's doing this so that you'll have fear. That's essentially what he's saying. Well, what kind of fear? What is the fear of God?
What does it mean to fear God? The definition that I've worked out. I've used this over the past few years. I think I've shared it before and this is I think a good well.
Well.
Measured definition. Taking up some of the Psalms and Proverbs and other descriptions of what the fear of God entails. So here's my definition.
The fear of God is.
Revering God Rooted in knowing God Resulting in obeying God. All right, I'll say that again. The fear of God is revering God. Having a reverence for God Rooted in knowing God. Not a God you don't know that you're afraid of.
It's not being afraid of hell. That's not knowing God. The reverence comes from actually knowing him knowing his character knowing who he is. So the fear of God is revering God rooted in knowing God Resulting in obeying God.
It can't just be flat empty.
Reverence.
It is born out in acts of obedience. Shifra and Pua had a reverence for God that in some way the text doesn't elaborate was rooted in their knowledge of God and It resulted in them obeying God rather than Pharaoh.
The most basic sense of that definition is of course reverence. Scripture commends that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Pharaoh has no fear of God and as we see he's acting most foolishly.
He's doing everything in his power to destroy Israel and in all of his power. He's making Israel stronger by the day. The fear of God is Primarily a reverence for God rooted in knowing God that results in obeying God that entails several things.
I'm just gonna gallop through some of these. The fear of God is Keeping his word. Ecclesiastes 12 13, let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter. Fear God. Keep his commandments. That's what the preacher Says.
Everything else that he's seen under the Sun has been vanity. Vanity of an ease. All of life is vanity. Good things end up decaying. The best of times end up evaporating. I've seen everything and everything is vain.
So what's the end of it all?
Fear God.
Keep his commandments. The fear of God is delighting in his word. Psalm 112 one blessed is the man who fears the Lord who delights greatly in his commandments. The fear of the Lord is not that the sort of proverbial Roman Catholic expurgation.
Self-flagellation. Oh, I messed up again. Oh father. Forgive me for us. It's a delight in his commandments. That's the fear of the Lord even when we Delight because of the contrast of our sin. We know that he's given us mercy and we see why his command is holy just and good.
That's how we delight greatly in his commandments. The fear of God is trusting in him. Psalm 115 11 you who fear the Lord trust in the Lord. He is their help. He is their shield. The fear of God is hoping in his mercy.
Psalm 147 11. The Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him. In who in those who hope in his mercy. The fear of God if it's Reverencing God rooted in knowing God resulting obeying God the fear of God delights in the company of God's people.
When you reverence God you like to be around other people that reverence God. When your reverence for God is rooted in knowing God not knowing about him. But knowing him you want to be around people that know him, too.
When your life is being characterized by a striving to obey you want to be around people that are striving to obey to Psalm 119 63. I'm a companion of all who fear you of those who keep your precepts.
The fear of God is hating evil and perhaps I'll end the sort of gallop here. This is the closest to Shifra and Pua. Proverbs 8 13 the fear of the Lord is to hate evil. That's Shifra and Pua. The fear of the Lord is to hate evil.
How can you imagine when they were assembled before Pharaoh and this command came down from him. And as they they sort of silently bowed you don't you don't interact with a command like that. When they looked up the Golden Throne, I wonder if any of you want to go see the National Geographic Presentation of Tutankhamen's tomb where they have all these walled projections and so the glittering gold and light and it was meant to recreate the the sort of splendor of Egyptian royalty you can imagine these these two midwives stumbling into the halls of power and The command comes down from the Golden Throne.
Surrounded by guards and idols and when they humbly bow and make their way out they get outside and they say How could we this is evil we can't do this, what are we going to do. The fear of the Lord is to hate evil.
If you're growing in the knowledge of God, you're growing in the fear of God. If you're growing in the fear of God, you're growing in obedience to God. We should take with a grain of salt someone who says oh I fear God.
Of course, I know God and I fear him but their life is pockmarked with disobedience. The simple answer is you neither know God and you certainly do not fear God. Fearing God is keeping his commandments.
Remember Joseph the story of Joseph his brothers cast him into the pit. Cut out from his family life cut out from all he had known cut out from that position of favor that that robe that status symbol that symbol of his father's love torn from him an abject slave there in the land.
He works his way up blessed by God in Potiphar's household. So easy for him to think. Well, I once thought I had this relationship with religion. But that didn't really get me far not in my family life, but you know what?
When life gives you lemons you make lemonade. I started at the bottom and look what I made of myself. All right. I'm a self-made man. No wonder I rose to the top. I just mustered it deep within myself.
I found some great podcasts that were just positive Enforcements in my life, you know, I had some great life coaches. I read some really good books about the power of positive thinking and here I am. The master over Potiphar's house a self-made man if ever there was one.
That's not how Joseph lives that's not how Joseph thinks of himself and so when Potiphar's wife Tempts him flirts with him calls for him grabs him begins to strip him. And he's he's halfway compromised already.
Here I am in a land far from God far from family for all far from all I've known here I am I made it and Here I am halfway into the bed with this woman.
What does Joseph say?
How could I do this evil against God. And he runs out into the streets. And then ends up back in a dungeon to start from scratch all over again. Do you see the fear of God? It's easy to seem like you're fearing God when things go well, but that's never the test is it?
It's when you're in the wilderness, it's when you're at the lowest ebb of your life. It's when you have Every reason to be dismayed and depressed and discouraged and what does it even matter? To follow through in any of these things that I used to do, but I used to want to do it doesn't matter anymore.
Joseph his whole life could be gutted and he says how could I ever do evil against God? That's a fear of God an oracle within my heart. David in Psalm 36 concerning the sin of the wicked. There's no fear of God before his eyes.
He flatters himself in his own eyes. When he finds out his iniquity he flatters himself in his eyes. It's not that bad better than that guy when he finds out His iniquity when he hates other people he flatters himself in his eyes the words of his mouth wickedness deceit.
He ceased to be wise. He ceased to be good. He devises wickedness on his bed. He sets himself in a way that is not good. He does not abhor.
Evil.
Let me tell you something that I find between the lines in the lives of Shifra and Pua. And without knowing too much about your own lives. I can tell you it's it's also there between the lines of what anyone else sees.
For Shifra and Pua to take a stand here in this way. It could not have happened if their lives up to that point had not been consistently Characterized in many small ways throughout every day by the fear of God.
You don't compromise a thousand times and then get the biggest trial the biggest fork in the road the biggest crisis You've ever experienced and think that's all the sudden when you're going to do a 180 of everything You've been leaning toward for the past year.
Have you ever seen stacks of dominoes. I'm not very good with physics a few years after homeschooling. I'll be better at physics. So I don't have an intelligent way to describe this, but perhaps you've seen you have a small domino.
And then the next one is slightly larger and the next one is slightly larger and maybe you begin with a three-inch Tall domino, but by the end of that chain as long as you make it you'll knock down a 30-foot.
Simply by the collective momentum of a little bit more and a little bit more and a little bit more. To not have a life that's characterized by the fear of God in the way that we have described is to think that when that crisis.
Comes.
When that test inevitably comes because the Lord is always proving his people. You can take your little three-inch domino and put it against that wall and really hope it knocks it over. How different it is when you have a life of momentum from the smallest things in your life To the greatest moments.
That's the difference of Schiffer and Pula. That will be the only difference in your life. You will buckle you will fold you will compromise you will fall. If you think you can muster it up at the ninth hour as a Christian.
It's daily obedience In all that God has required. It's a delight in all that God has commanded. It's seeing light and life and goodness and hope in all that God has provided. That's the way 30-foot walls get knocked down.
That's the way to midwives can sit down a Pharaoh. That's the way that men and women who fear God transform an evil society. This is a calling brothers and sisters for the whole church, don't you love the little summaries and acts?
It's like the hallmark moments of the book of Acts and you know what? The best one is that I've read so far Acts 9 31 and Walking in the fear of the Lord and In the comfort of the Holy Spirit. They were multiplied.
Wouldn't you like that to be a summary of GRBC from this year forward? Walking in the fear of the Lord. And with the comfort of the Holy Spirit God knows it's hard comfort your people Without these faithful women.
The Messiah would not have come without these faithful women. The Maniacal and genocidal tyrant would have crushed out the very purpose of God for the world. The hope of all the nations even the hope of Egypt itself rests in the promised seed of the woman.
No monarch no Pharaoh is ever named in the Old Testament, but we know the names of Shifra and Pua. This is what the fear of God will do to a humble or a meek woman or a humble or a weak man. In that humility and weakness they'll make Kings bow and so and I close with perhaps this observation.
We can fear God and trust him because God has all power and all wisdom and all might. When Pharaoh the sort of serpentine puppet when Pharaoh Tries now in verse 22 to drown the children of Israel. Do you know what God does in?
Due time. He drowns all the soldiers of Pharaoh in the Red Sea. God has all power and all might therefore we shall not be afraid. What can man do to us? Let's pray. Oh, we thank you for your word. We pray Lord.
You would give us a reverence for you that we currently do not possess a reverence as individuals as Households here Lord that you would be the fear in our homes. That we would reverence you however awkward it may be we would follow through on your commandments.
That we would not fail in the day of trial. Because we've put on the armor day by day to keep what you've given to us out of fear.
Out of love.
That we would see the conclusion of the whole matter truly is to fear you and keep what you have commanded us. Help us in this church Lord to walk together collectively. Not just as individuals not just having you as the reverence of our homes.
But even as a church Lord that we would walk together Collectively in a fear of you and in the comfort you give us by the paraclete and that you would so multiply us Lord. That even where your blessing begins to attract the attention if not the opposition of those around us We would not lose heart.
We would not be distracted we would see your great purpose for your kingdom in this world and how it it has a Great calling on every believer in whatever station or season they may find themselves. It has a purpose in the sphere of the home.
It commands the nation in the state and ultimately Lord. It will be your kingdom that brings forth that promised seed and the fullness of the curse will be eradicated forever. The serpent Finally and forever crushed.
Help us Lord to be motivated and moved by these things. Give us momentum Lord and strength where we are weak. Give young women in this church a fear of you. Might they be worthy of the names beautiful one and splendid one.
These things we ask in your son's name. Amen.